The High Court of Orissa vide its interim order has categorically directed that there shall be stay of operation of annexure-III series and annexure-IV series in writ petition (WP) (c) number-9521 of 2017 and stipulated that if a petitioner is found to be liable to pay the dues in future, the said dues shall be deposited as and when directed by the court.
The court in another writ petition WP(c) number-10292 of 2017 also directed that there shall be stay of operation of annexure-III series and annexure-VII, VIII and IX subject to the same condition as of the earlier petition.
It therefore goes without saying that the annexure stayed by the HC in both the writ petitions are the executive orders, letters, circulars and notifications, all of which facilitated introduction and operation of the e-Registration system in Odisha that invariably means that until and unless the stay is vacated or court passes an order adjudicating the e-Registration system to be lawful, the citizens of the State shall not be deprived of their legitimate and constitutional rights to register their documents as per the existing provisions and in the manner provided under the Registration Act, 1908.
It is clearly understood therefore that, the present e-Registration system has been managed to be operated without amendment to the Registration Act of 1908 and therefore, it was incumbent upon the court to stay operation of the entire e-Registration system, including the user charges payable therefore.
In this connection, this is very pertinent to mention here that one Biswanath Panda of Puri town and Santosh Kumar Behera of Badakanjia village in Satyabadi area of Puri district respectively had filed the WP(c) number-10, 292 of 2017 and W.P(c) number-9, 521 of 2017 being aggrieved by the decisions of the concerned Registering Officers who had outright rejected their prayers to register their respective documents as per the statutory manual process under the Registration Act.
It remains to be seen how soon good sense prevails on the State Government mandarins to restore the original and the lawful process of registration. It is also a matter of grave concern that the over 30 lakh of documents already processed through the e-Registration system having no sanction of law are deemed unregistered as per Section 50 read with Sections 60 and 49 of the Registration Act.
“It is an admitted fact and a general perception that a whopping sum of Rs 20 lakh crore approximately involved in the transactions of documents through the abominable e-Registration system in shape of consideration amount, stamp duty, registration fees and user charges and appropriated by the Private Service Provider Company (Il and FS) shall go waste unless the documents are duly registered again by the concerned Registering Officers as per the Act,” said advocate and noted social worker Binay Nrusingha Mohapatra of Puri.
In this connection, this is to be mentioned here that the matter relates to the fraud act of the State Government authorities who in connivance with a private company ‘Il and FS’ have managed to continue a purely private and commercial electronic registration project since January 4, 2010 in the name of “e-Dharani” having no sanction of law.
More pertinent is the company has been declared tainted in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Nagaland so far. Intellectuals wonder, how the State Government has extended its patronage to such a company whose activities have proved questionable all over the country.